Impossible [Mexico 2008]

Yesterday, I was in an interview with someone that said he couldn't conceive of the possibility that someone might go to the Bible objectively, within an orthodox framework, and come up with an interpretation that condones modern-day same-sex sexuality. Admittedly, when I made up my mind, I had not yet done hours of research on the original words in Greek, I didn't know anywhere near as much about the culture, and I was relatively young. But even so, I found it slightly ironic that he was telling this to me, someone that originally went to the Bible with absolutely no reason for believing anything either way, having never thought about it before, and came out differing from him.

I went back today to see what I wrote about it the very first time I thought about it seriously. I don't remember when it was that I resolved my intellectual conflict. Turns out the first set of conversations I had about controversies coming into the summer before the start of my highschool career was perfect preparation for my senior project.

This is from an email I sent out to some friends the first week of July, after returning from a mission trip to Tijuana with my church.

in the tent after work one day, i think it was monday, everyone got into the discussion/argument about creation and then i'm like oh cool i didn't even start it! so i joined in. soon after the topic shifted to homosexuality. now, for about a month i have been absolutely neutral concerning this topic... true, jordan started me thinking about it but i'm not... like, biased toward thinking it's ok because of her. it's just that it's never occured to me to think about gay marriage before because i've never even met anyone gay, or lesbian, or bi... i was neutral so i brought up points for both sides.

it does make sense to me to think that as long as it's based off of love, not lust, it would be the same as a straight relationship. there would be very few of those cases, cuz a lot of homos are just going after the lust but... so do a lot of straight couples. and it makes sense to think that it's the same sort of deal as the paul and women thing, where he says that women can't teach men. that it should be interpreted through the light of their culture and the reason that law was given to those people 2000 years ago, or more if you count everything in, like, leviticus. it makes sense to think that homos can be just as strong christians as straight people. it doesn't make any sense that we should treat homos any different than straight people.

but then 1st corinthians 6 says "homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of god". and it's very clear about that. it's clear that god intended men and women to be together. it's clear that the bible tells us the world will try to trick us and we need to obey what the bible says.
but is this one of the world's "tricks"?

i lean to a different side every minute i think about it. and as you all know i hate being undecided about things. so i wish i would come to a conclusion, but i don't know which side's right. it's not a lot that i don't already believe something about this kind of thing.

on saturday it came up again. everyone had gone swimming and i was just sitting around and then barrett/ashley/tucker brought it up again cuz they wanted to set me straight lol. and it was a loooong discussion. that did not change my view at all. but i understood what they were saying. anyways, it went on for like 3 hours. and more and more people came back from the pool, so in the end everyone but jordan and jeremiah were in the discussion. it went all over the place... and everyone took turns talking, i felt a little attacked at times lol cuz the discussion was still centered on convincing me homosexuality is a sin and well i started the whole thing so everyone was talking to me... and yeah. later, there were about 15 people around the table, including jordan and jeremiah. someone said it was 9:15 and we should all go get ready for bed before it gets too dark, and then someone's like THIS is what christianity should be about (because the topic had also shifted to the bad stereotype christian people had given to christianity), talking honestly and correcting each other and community. (and i thought... hmm, what jamie says is true. love is the movement. community is important.) and everyone agreed with that point. and that it's our job to recognize that many, many people have "christianity" in their head with a very negative connotation, and fix it.

Well, then.